ADU Pass
Ordinary
ADU Pass helps homeowners in Ordinary, No County, Virginia navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 1 ZIP code.
Map
ADU details
ADU legality: allowed-with-restrictions
ADUs allowed under Gloucester County's accessory-apartment / accessory-dwelling framework with size cap and owner-occupancy. Ordinary's position along Route 17 corridor and proximity to Gloucester Point bridge to Yorktown makes it more development-ready than outlying Gloucester CDPs: public water (Gloucester County Department of Utilities) is available on most parcels; sewer varies by parcel.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 220 | $580 | $51,700 | $52,280 |
| 600 | 600 | $920 | $141,000 | $141,920 |
| midpoint | 600 | $920 | $141,000 | $141,920 |
| maximum | 800 | $1,240 | $188,000 | $189,240 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-05)
Permitting process
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: with-restrictions Long-term rental permitted subject to county owner-occupancy condition. Reasonable tenant pool from Yorktown commuters, Coleman Bridge crossers, and Gloucester courthouse workers.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions Gloucester County regulates STRs through zoning ordinance; Ordinary corridor STR demand is modest (mostly Yorktown / Hampton Roads visitors using Route 17 bridge).
- Office rental: no Detached office in residential SF-1 districts not permitted without rezoning. Some Ordinary parcels are in B-2 (commercial corridor) where office use is permitted but accessory residential is not the primary use.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted under standard county conditions.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist/workshop studio is a normal accessory use.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Limited agricultural accessory uses in RR (Rural Residential) districts; less applicable in SF-1 corridor parcels.
- Relative support: yes Multigenerational accessory apartment for family members is supported under the owner-occupancy framework.
Contacts
Utilities
- Water: Gloucester County Department of Utilities for corridor parcels; private well for outlying parcels · 45d connect · $5,500
- Sewer: Gloucester County Department of Utilities (corridor parcels); private septic (VDH Three Rivers Health District regulated) for outlying parcels · 60d connect · $8,500
- Electric: Dominion Energy Virginia · 30d connect · $1,800
- Gas: Virginia Natural Gas (limited corridor coverage); propane for most parcels · 21d connect · $1,900
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 8mo · typical 11mo · worst 17mo
Modular pathway inspectors are occasional with modular
Ordinary sits on Route 17, a state primary road with adequate access for modular delivery via the Coleman Bridge.
Financing
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Ordinary corridor has mixed HOA exposure: older corridor parcels (no HOA) and newer Gloucester Point subdivisions (active HOAs). Higher prevalence than rural Gloucester (Achilles, Bena) but lower than newer Loudoun development.
Regulatory overlays (1)
- wetland-overlay
Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Resource Protection Area applies along Sarah's Creek and Cedarbush Creek corridors that drain through Ordinary. Most corridor parcels are outside RPA but some side-street tracts are partially affected.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
- Amendment
- Amendment
Contractor market (aggregate)
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: Gloucester County Zoning Ordinance, Appendix B — Accessory Apartment / Accessory Dwelling, adopted 2024-06-26, last amended 2024-06-26
- 1651-01-01 — Gloucester County established by the Virginia General Assembly (local-ordinance)
Gloucester County formed in 1651 from York County. The Ordinary CDP takes its name from the Colonial-era 'ordinary' (tavern/inn) that served Route 17 (King's Highway) traffic between Yorktown and Tidewater.
Effect: Establishes Gloucester County as the unit of land-use authority over Ordinary. - 2024-06-26 — Gloucester County Zoning Ordinance Final Draft — comprehensive update (county-ordinance)
Comprehensive rewrite of Gloucester County zoning ordinance with refined accessory-apartment and accessory-dwelling definitions and owner-occupancy requirements.
Effect: Pre-dates the SB531 January 1, 2026 exemption deadline; controls in Ordinary. - 2026-04-14 — Virginia SB531 — statewide by-right ADU mandate signed by Governor Spanberger (state-law)
SB531 signed by Governor Spanberger, effective July 1, 2027. Mandates by-right ADUs in single-family zones, caps permit fees at $500. Localities with ADU ordinances in place by January 1, 2026 are exempt.
Effect: Gloucester County's pre-2026 accessory-apartment ordinance satisfies the exemption; Ordinary remains under county rules.
Known issues (2)
- other — Owners must verify utility availability before assuming connection costs; private well/septic adds $15K-$25K to project cost vs. public connection.
- policy-review — Constrains rental-only investment use; owner-builder family-occupancy pattern is the canonical use case.
County: no attribution (synthetic bucket)
No county
This city sits in the state's "no county" bucket — its ADU rules derive directly from state law and city ordinance without a county intermediary. No county-level sections apply.
Virginia state — ADU law and programs
State ADU law
Virginia has NOT enacted a statewide ADU preemption law. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state — localities possess only those powers expressly granted by the General Assembly — and the statutes granting zoning authority (Va. Code § 15.2-2280 et seq.) leave ADU regulation to local ordinances. ADU permission, setbacks, parking, size, and owner-occupancy rules therefore vary by county, independent city, and town. Virginia is unique in that it has 38 independent cities that function as counties (neither in nor subordinate to the surrounding county), meaning 'the county' for any given Virginia property may be an independent city rather than a true county. Several ADU preemption bills have been introduced in recent General Assembly sessions (2022 through 2025) without enactment; none have advanced past committee as of the Assembly's 2026 regular session adjournment.
State financing programs
Virginia does not operate an ADU-specific statewide loan, grant, or forgivable-loan program. Virginia Housing (formerly the Virginia Housing Development Authority, VHDA — rebranded 2020) administers general first-time-homebuyer, down-payment-assistance (DPA), mortgage-credit-certificate, and rehabilitation products that can be applied to ADU-adjacent purchases or improvements when eligibility criteria are met, but none target ADU construction as a distinct product. The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) administers federal HOME and CDBG pass-through funds that local jurisdictions can direct toward ADU-adjacent rehab, but there is no state-level ADU-dedicated line item. Federally available products (FHA 203(k), Fannie Mae HomeReady and HomeStyle Renovation, Freddie Mac CHOICERenovation) remain the primary ADU financing path for Virginia homeowners.
State housing programs
Virginia does not run a state-level pre-approved-ADU-plan catalog, statewide impact-fee-waiver statute for ADUs, or streamlined-review mandate. State-level programs that touch ADU-adjacent policy are coordinated primarily through the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and Virginia Housing, and act by funding or assisting local jurisdictions rather than by preemption. Local ADU activity — Arlington County's Accessory Dwellings program (detached ADUs permitted since 2008, liberalized 2020), Alexandria's accessory-dwelling ordinance, Fairfax County's accessory-living-unit program, and Charlottesville's 2021 zoning-code changes — is authorized under the localities' Va. Code § 15.2-2280 zoning authority, not by state mandate.
- DHCD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program — Federal CDBG funds administered by DHCD to eligible non-entitlement Virginia localities for community-revitalization, housing-rehab, and infrastructure projects. Not ADU-specific. Participating localities can direct CDBG funds toward housing-rehab projects where local policy supports ADUs.
- DHCD HOME Investment Partnerships Program — Federal HOME funds administered by DHCD to Virginia participating jurisdictions and non-profits for affordable-housing acquisition, rehab, and new construction. Not ADU-specific; can be directed to ADU-adjacent rehab at local discretion.
- Virginia Housing Commission — Permanent advisory commission of the General Assembly that studies housing-policy questions and recommends legislation. Has periodically studied ADU preemption and missing-middle housing without recommending statewide enactment as of 2026-04-21.
- Local ADU ordinances under Va. Code § 15.2-2280 authority — Not a state program — listed here because Virginia ADU policy is executed entirely at the locality level under the § 15.2-2280 zoning grant. A homeowner seeking to build an ADU consults the zoning ordinance of the specific county, city, or town where the parcel is located.
Federal (United States) — ADU-relevant rules and programs
Federal ADU law
The United States has no federal statute that directly regulates accessory dwelling unit entitlement or design. Land-use authority over ADUs resides with states and local governments under the traditional police power. Federal engagement is limited to financing (Fannie/Freddie/FHA/VA/USDA), flood insurance (FEMA/NFIP), and discretionary housing programs (HUD), which are recorded in sibling sections of this file.
Federal financing programs
Federal housing-finance agencies and GSEs set nationwide underwriting rules that govern whether an ADU can be financed, appraised, and counted toward mortgage qualifying income. The relevant actors are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA (HUD), VA, and USDA Rural Development.
Federal tax credits
There is no ADU-specific federal tax credit. ADUs may incidentally qualify for existing federal energy-efficiency and clean-energy tax credits when the ADU construction includes qualifying measures.
Federal housing programs
HUD administers several discretionary programs that can fund ADU-related activity at the grantee's election, but none is an ADU-specific program.
ZIP Code
- 23131
Post Office
- 3992 George Washington Memorial Hwy, 23131